What We Are Reading Today: The Villa

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Updated 31 August 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: The Villa

Author: James S. Ackerman

In “The Villa,” James Ackerman explores villa building in the West from ancient Rome to 20th-century France and America.

In this wide-ranging book, he illuminates such topics as the early villas of the Medici, the rise of the Palladian villa in England, and the modern villas of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.

Ackerman uses the phenomenon of the “country place” as a focus for examining the relationships between urban and rural life, between building and the natural environment, and between architectural design and social, cultural, economic, and political forces.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Island in the Net’ by Steffen Kohn

Updated 11 February 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Island in the Net’ by Steffen Kohn

Until just a few years ago, Cuba was one of the least-connected countries in the world. But as digital technology has become increasingly available, Cubans have found inventive ways to work around such remaining barriers as slow speeds, high costs, and inadequate infrastructure.

In “Island in the Net,” Steffen Kohn examines Cuba’s nascent digital culture and how it has reconfigured the relationship between the state and its citizens.

Each chapter is accompanied by a multimodal anthropology work: a video game, interactive installations, video art, and an ethnographic documentary.